El Chapo convicted

And he’ll undoubtedly get life in prison (he’s 61), as he was found guilty of all ten counts of the indictment, including conspiracy to murder, money laundering, and, of course, running a criminal enterprise. In this case life in prison is the mandatory sentence

Kudos to the prosecution for amassing and presenting a mountain of evidence. The trial itself had its weird moments, but you can read about them below.

But El Chapo isn’t the only guilty one. As the NYT reports:

Witness after witness took the stand at the trial and talked about paying off nearly every level of the Mexican police, military and political establishment — including the shocking allegation that Mr. Guzmán gave a $100 million bribe to the country’s former president, Enrique Peña Nieto, in the run-up to Mexico’s 2012 elections. There was also testimony that bribes were paid to Genaro García Luna, one of Mexico’s top former law enforcement officers, a host of Mexican generals and police officials, and almost the entire congress of Colombia.

They better put this guy under the strictest possible security given his cartel’s wealth and the fact that he’s escaped from prison twice before. And the cartel moves on, headed by his sons.

40 Comments

I think one of the funniest parts of the trial had to be one of the bad guys turned to provide evidence said that Chapo tried to kill him 4 times. One was with a mariachi band playing a fist full of dirt before throwing hand grenades into the cell he was in. I guess it was Chapo’s favorite song.

I doubt it. Wehn I was young, smoking was legal everywhere, and smokers shamelessly took over every closed space and forced everyone else to suffocate in their smoke. This of course motivated many teens to become smokers, because if you inhale smoke anyway, their logic said that it would be better to smoke. Now, with the new anti-smoking laws, we can finally enjoy fresh air.

And legalizing recreational drug use does not mean that people will be smoking dope in public buildings.

You do see the difference, I hope, between making a product completely illegal and restricting its use in some circumstances. Or are you advocating that we make ethanol products illegal because you DUI is against the law?

I am serious. Proponents of recreational drug use seem very determined about it and unless specific measures are taken, I suppose that they will enjoy it everywhere and, in the case of smoking marijuana, will push it down the tracheas of non-smokers, like tobacco smokers used to do.
The very fact that you are accusing me of trolling shows what is in store for those who are not excited about drug use.

How many bottles of gin have been pushed down your gullet by alcoholics?

Drug use happens whether or not you are excited about it. We should be discussing how to respond to realities here, not to paranoid fears of being forced to shoot heroin.

The inability to distinguish public health issues from criminal behavior is why I thought you might be trolling. I have a hard time understanding how people can not recognize the difference. Hence, the suggestion that you might be trolling.

“How many bottles of gin have been pushed down your gullet by alcoholics?”

Every psychoactive substance known to me, including alcohol, creates a culture in which users press non-users to join. Jack London describes this pressure in detail – how, when he started work, he did not wish to drink, but an older colleague would order a drink for both, young Jack would have to drink it so that not to insult the generous colleague, and then HE would have to order a drink for both… Men I know describe identical situations.

Women are traditionally exempt from the drunkenness culture, but my ex-boss had missed the memo. He regularly organized parties with “hard” drinks, filled our glasses, insisted that we empty them, then filled them again. He especially loved to harass this way an older collegue, whom he hated because her impact factor was way above his. Therefore, at these parties, she positioned herself strategically close to some large flower-pot and, when he was not looking, she emptied her glass in it.

I didn’t care much about his invitations to drink, but he kept repeating them. At one such party, I was pregnant, he knew it (and it was already very visible), and he nevertheless insisted that I empty my glass. My colleagues joked: “Come on, Maya, drink it! It will give your baby a good sleep!” The boss realized that he was making a fool of himself and shut up for the moment.

Alcohol has never agreed with me for some reason so I basically made it to about 50 before I could drink maybe as much as 1/4 pint of beer. I was often the only sober one at parties in college but usually managed to decline without too much hassle. When traveling in Mexico in my early 20s with a friend who had a college roommate who had married aMexican guy, friend and I were set up with dates with friends of Mexican hubby and we all set off for a night out in Mexico City. I sipped at a tiny bit of a Bloody Mary and “my guy” said, “What are you, some kind of feminist?” I don’t think we got to dinner until maybe 11:00. Got home around 2 AM, hostess passed out, and host, her hubby, tried to get into bed with me, saying he was worried because my travel friend wasn’t back yet. A memorable evening…

Are you advocating the criminalization of alcohol production, distribution, and use?

If not, then you’re arguing a completely different matter. There is nobody I know who doesn’t realize that there are alcoholics, heroin addicts, and cigarette smokers who annoy those of us who don’t smoke. The point you seem to not “get” is that criminalization of these activities doesn’t make them go away. It makes society’s problems worse.

While I’m no fan of the drug war, I’m dubious that legalisation would solve very much. Or at least I’d like to push back on the assertion that it is obvious that it would do so.

It seems to me the problem is essentially contested sovereignty. The Mexican government gets the capital and the chair at the UN, but that’s not the same thing as controlling the territory, having a monopoly on force. Their competitors tax, or run by themselves, various businesses, and obviously ones that have no legitimate competition (like moving cocaine into Texas) are attractive.

But elsewhere, pretty similar organisations seem to subsist on all sorts of other businesses, like bootleg crude oil, or trash disposal, artisanal cobolt mining… and simply taxing legitimate businesses, be they local pizzerias, or foreign container ships.

What a funny coincidence. There is a band named The Presidents Of The United States Of America and one of their more commercially popular songs is Peaches, off their 1994 debut album that went triple platinum. Not bad but not one of my favorites by them. Those would be Lump and Carolyn’s Bootie.

The USA charged him (a foreign national) with crimes that took place outside of the USA. The USA really is the world’s policeman.

Except, as JezGrove points out above, when it comes to banking executives in the USA. Then the USA is considerably more lenient for those who launder money for murdering sociopaths and their illicit organizations.

With that kind of money to throw around it would not surprise me if Chapo’s sons tried to mount an invasion to spring him.
Is there any place of confinement secure enough? Someplace far north and very cold.

I’m 99% certain he’ll live & die at the “Super Max” or Administrative Maximum Facility (ADX) in Florence, Colorado, 90 miles south of Denver. AKA Alcatraz of the Rockies WIKI

It’s built on rock with no possibility of digging tunnels in & no escaping in laundry baskets. Very little chance of turning the staff & it’s a world to its own – people going nuts in there screaming & banging on the walls.

We all know that enormous portions of the Mexican government, army, and law enforcement are connected to the cartels, and that’s why El Chapo was able to escape prison twice. He won’t be able to do that in a Colorado super-max prison.